My research is in the field of Particle Physics, which covers the study of the elementary particles and forces in nature. In particular, I have focussed on the physics of the Higgs particle. The Higgs boson, to use its more technical name, is a key elementary particle, thought to explain the mechanism whereby elementary particles acquire mass. The exact mechanism for this was one of the major puzzles in particle physics for decades. I was involved in the search for, and eventual discovery of, the Higgs particle in experiments at particle colliders. The discovery of the Higgs particle was announced at CERN - the European Laboratory for Particle Physics - in July 2012. I am now involved in the detailed experimental study of the properties of the Higgs boson.

More specifically, in recent years I have concentrated on the study of the production of Higgs particles in association with a pair of top-quarks. These studies are carried out with data collected in very high-energy proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The production of Higgs particles with a pair of top-quarks is a rare process which allows the study of the direct interaction between the Higgs boson and the top quark, the heaviest elementary particle known in nature, and could reveal signs of new physics. More details about this are available in the following article: "Direct observation of the interaction between the Higgs boson and top quark announced by experiments at CERN".

I joined the Department of Physics at Royal Holloway in October 2000, primarily to continue my work on Higgs searches at the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Prior to that I worked for a decade on the Higgs search at the Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider at CERN, in the OPAL (1990-94) and ALEPH (1995-2000) experiments. I was an undergraduate at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, and studied for my PhD in Particle Physics at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. I was then a post-doc at the University of Glasgow.

PH2210 - Quantum Mechanics

Year 1 / Year 2 Weekly Physics Tutorials

PH3110, PH4100 - Supervisor of final year BSc/MSci Major Projects

PH4110 - Supervisor of Research Reviews

PH3110 - BSc Experimental or Theoretical project (Co-ordinator) 

Previously:

PH4442 - Advanced Particle Physics (20%)

PH2510 - Atomic and Nuclear Physics

PH2520 - Particle Detectors and Accelerators

PH1530 - Special Relativity and Quantum Physics 

from 2023       Principal Investigator of ATLAS UK Collaboration (15 institutes)

2020 - 2022    Deputy PI of ATLAS UK Collaboration

from 2019       Senior Tutor / Physics

2014 - 2017     Head of Department of Physics

2011 - 2013     REF Lead / Physics

2011 - 2014     Associate Dean (Research) / Science Faculty

2007 - 2012     Director of Research / Physics

2010 - 2018     Member of the STFC Oversight Committee for the project "Upgrade of the CMS detector at the LHC"

2010 - 2012     Member of the STFC Projects Peer Review Panel (PPRP)